Did the conservative complaint that the media is liberal-biased make it less willing to criticize the government, especially a Republican one?

It's normal when journalists question, or write a critical story, to hear this noise. We shouldn't listen to it. We are the true guardians of the public good. That's what we should be thinking. The bad news for American television journalism, in particular, is the concentration of ownership by major corporations more interested in revenue and ratings than they are in news divisions having appropriate editorial control and keeping entertainment values out of the news. That has been disastrous. You find a broadcast news establishment that is simply incapable of serving the American public in emergencies, as it really should. The answer is clear: American journalists have to take greater control of editorial content.

Could better coverage of Afghanistan have helped avert the Sept. 11 attacks?

Yes, in part. But we have to remember that Sept. 11 was the culmination of more than a decade of activity on the part of fanatics and loose cannons, like Osama bin Laden and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It is true that Western countries, and the United States in particular, were not well enough informed about what was happening in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Until we improve the quality and the quantity of reporting from those regions, we're going to run the same risks.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai recently spoke before Congress about the need for the U.S. to focus on rebuilding his country. What does that portend for a U.S. occupation of Iraq?

Hamid Karzai is the captive president of Afghanistan. It's very sad. He's a wonderful person; a good leader and he could be a great leader. He could reconstruct that country, but he doesn't have the security forces he requires. Recently he came to Washington and openly asked for it and was told, no: We're going to Iraq. That's bad news for the American people.

The recklessness of this situation in Afghanistan is revealed by the fact that last year the world's great powers got together in Tokyo and voted $4.5 billion of aid to rebuild the country. In the last few weeks, the Bush administration was waving $6 billion in cash in front of Turkey just to allow the U.S. Army to get through to attack Iraq. Now where are the scales? Where is that money coming from in the first place? Do the American people understand how deep a hole that's going to put in their pockets in the future? It reveals a lack of planning on the Bush administration's part. There is no plan for a post-Saddam Iraq. It's still being cobbled together. That's a huge problem. What we may see over the coming weeks is the tragic situation of a rather swift, violent and bloody war, followed by an immense question mark.

After Sept. 11, the Bush administration basically told Americans not to question our foreign policies. What's the danger of that mentality?

Every American has the right to demand a cost-effective foreign policy. Americans saw more of their tax dollars invested in Afghanistan in the 1980s than in any other CIA covert activity. Yet, where was America's influence in the '90s when the Taliban came along? It was gone, because the Bush Senior administration squandered gains of the defeat of the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The administration turned away at exactly the wrong time, just as the Bush Junior administration is turning away now, ignoring what's going on.

The capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Pakistan last week is a triumph, but it's evidence as well that if we had put significant enough manpower and resources on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan a year ago, all the al-Qaida leadership would now be located, or behind bars, or eliminated. Instead, the president and the administration allowed the focus to shift to Iraq. The war against terrorism in Afghanistan is far from won: It's looking very shaky indeed.

Warlordism is rampant and anti-Americanism is rampant in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. One year after collapse of the Taliban, the fundamentalists, the zealots, the religious parties, responsible for creating the Taliban in the first place, won the balance of power in Pakistan's parliament. They control the governorships of the border provinces, where Osama bin Laden, presumably, and many of his lieutenants are holing up, as was the case with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

About 4,000 civilian Afghans were killed during the U.S. campaign. Why weren't those figures more widely reported?

The most reliable assessment I think has been made by a University of New Hampshire study, which tracked all reports of civilian deaths. Something like over 3,600 Afghan men, women and children have been killed thus far. And every innocent killed is a gain for Osama bin Laden; it makes his work easier. He's able to say, see, there they are, the rich Western countries, the greedy, self-centered, crass, heartless Western countries killing our people and not even keeping count.

Journalists should it point out. We quite properly keep accurate counts of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. But it's quite improper, and wrong, that the Pentagon and the U.S. administration have not been forced to support international efforts to ascertain the exact number of civilian dead and wounded in Afghanistan. Sweeping those deaths under the carpet and calling those deaths collateral damage is not good enough. It's not good enough morally and ethically, but more important, from a purely self-centered point of view, it's not good for the American people. That blows back in future terrorist animosity and public animosity in the Arab, Muslim and Third World against the United States.

You criticized the Pentagon's control of media coverage of the Gulf War. Do you think its "embedding" program will let reporters give a more accurate picture of this war?

It's important for American journalists to accompany American forces. The men and women in uniform deserve it. And the public deserves an independent eye. Having said that, all news organizations have a duty to deploy journalists on the other side, if possible, and be free of U.S. military control. In the final analysis, I'm afraid past experience indicates that the Pentagon will try to ensure journalists are deployed, moved around and allowed to operate only in a way that tells its side of the story.

What are you going to do if there is war?

I'm going to be covering this side of the story: the United States government, the United Nations and the allies. What they are doing. What positions and roles they take in the coming weeks. I'm going to be writing and doing projects for the History Channel. And yes, I'll be doing a number of documentary and television commentaries throughout the war, if there is a war, as need arises. I have to say if I had my fondest wishes come true, there would not be a war.

Do you regret being remembered as the Scud Stud?

No. We were of the middle of a very tense, difficult situation. We were trying to cover a war. We were being kept 200 miles from the front. Suddenly, we had a story falling, literally falling, on our heads, and I was able to report it in real time by satellite. There was an unusual response and we treated it as something of a laugh. It didn't change my reporting, except to the degree that my masters at NBC News put me on the air more often where I was able to talk about issues like censorship and command and control within coalition warfare. So, the benefits were huge to me as a journalist.

It's enabled me to win my independence as a journalist and keep doing it. Remember, I'm from a journalistic family who were always the first people to remind me who I was and who I am and to never let something affect my reporting, except to make me more determined to keep going and keep speaking independently.

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